narrow minded?
A friend of mine reminded me yesterday that God speaks in a variety of ways, and that creation was one of the ways God has spoken to her. This is so true for us to remember when listening for God or wanting to hear a word from God. But this also makes things a little more complicated when it comes to figuring out what it is God is trying to say. For instance,
In the Old Testament alone God spoke to people all the time, yet the Bible doesn’t tell us how He spoke. For instance, in Genesis 8:15 we see that “God spoke to Noah,” in Genesis 12:1, “the Lord said to Abraham,” Exodus 24:12, “the Lord said to Moses,” Joshua 7:10, “the Lord said to Joshua,” 1 Samuel 16:1, “the Lord said to Samuel,” Isaiah 38:4, “then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah,” Hosea 1:1, “then the word of the Lord which came to Hosea,” and in Zephaniah 1:1, “The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah.” I know that was kind of boring to read that, so here is some more boring stuff for you to read. God also spoke in a ton of other ways in the Old Testament, like creation (as my friend pointed out), angels, prophets, dreams, visions, casting lots, urim and thummim, gentle voice, fire, burning bush, preaching, judgments, symbolic actions, signs, miracles, writing on the wall, donkey, trumpet, thunder and lightning, smoke and storms, fleece, sounds of marching in the treetops, face-to-face, personal guidance, etc.
In the New Testament God spoke a ton too through the risen Christ, nature, angels, dreams, visions, prayer, prophets, lot-casting, signs and wonders, preachers, scripture, an unbeliever, the church, the holy spirit, etc.
Okay, I’m glad that paragraph is over, but the cool thing about the boring paragraph above is that God chose all those ways to communicate to His people. John 21:25 even states that “and there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” So undoubtedly there are tons of other ways God can and did speak! I guess the key for us then is not how God spoke, but that God spoke period!
Here’s the thing when it comes to hearing God, we will know it is God when He speaks. John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” Let’s keep pursuing God with our eyes a little more open now than maybe they have been. God is out there and maybe even is trying to talk to us already but we are so narrow minded or closed minded in how God can talk to us we can’t see Him jumping up and down, and dancing in the corner trying to get our attention.
Let’s start looking for God to speak to us together.